Six years after political scandal led to them announcing their separation, this is the picture that shows everything is back to normal for Labour’s Tessa Jowell and her husband David Mills.

The pair were seen laughing and joking as they emerged from Dame Tessa’s London home early in the morning after apparently spending the night under the same roof.

An onlooker said: ‘Mr Mills came out first, and moved his car to by the front door so she could get in for a lift. They were both very jovial together, laughing and smiling.

Together once more: David Mills and Dame Tessa Jowell emerge from her North London home last week. The couple appear to be back together six years after they separated

‘It looked very much like he had slept there overnight.’ It comes a fortnight after Dame Tessa, 65, revealed that the pair, who have two grown-up children, had rekindled their romance.

The MP for Dulwich, South East London, announced the split in 2006, amid growing claims in Italy that tax lawyer Mr Mills accepted a £350,000 bribe in return for providing false testimony for Silvio Berlusconi in two corruption trials targeting the then Italian premier.

Split: Mr Mills is seen arriving with his wife at the couple's London home in 2006 shortly after allegations he took a £350,000 bribe from Silvio Berlusconi came to light

Dame Tessa had signed documents for a huge loan taken out on the marital £1million home in North London – only for the loan to be repaid shortly afterwards, allegedly with the ‘bribe’ money.

She maintained she was unaware of the payment Mr Mills, 67, received from Mr Berlusconi, but the controversy called into question her position as Culture Secretary.

It worsened when it emerged Mr Mills had used her Cabinet position, and their friendship with Tony Blair, the then Prime Minister, to try to fend off the corruption claims.

Mr Mills was first convicted in Italian courts of taking a bribe from Berlusconi – then cleared on a technicality.

Although they sold their house following their split, with Mr Mills moving to Warwickshire and Dame Tessa to a flat in Highgate, they never divorced, and there had since been regular claims that the two were repeatedly seen together.

But during an interview on Radio 4 show Woman’s Hour last month – days after her decision to step down from the Shadow Cabinet and not long after she received her damehood – she firmly denied that the separation had been a fraud designed to save her career.

She said: ‘What mother is prepared to look her children in the eye and say, “We are splitting up. But, you know what? It’s not real”.’

Of their split, she added: ‘He reached the view that life was intolerable while we were together and, as he put it to me, “You’re my problem, I’m your problem” and we separated. It broke my heart.’

But revealing how there had been a rapprochement, she said: ‘David has his house in the country and I have my house. We see each other regularly and we have time together which I really treasure as a family. We have reached a state of stability which I never thought possible.’

An article on 9 October said that Dame Tessa Jowell had been criticised by the Cabinet Secretary in 2006 over an alleged payment to her husband by Silvio Berlusconi but had been subsequently cleared of wrongdoing by Tony Blair, In fact, while the Cabinet Secretary agreed that her husband should have informed her about the payment, he made no criticism of Dame Tessa. We apologise for the error.

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Tessa Jowell: Back in the old routine after six years, Dame and her 'Silvio scandal' husband